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Monty Tech teacher earns Mass Audubon award

By Michael Hartwell, mhartwell@sentinelandenterprise.com

Updated:
05/07/2013 07:38:40 AM EDT

SENTINEL & ENTERPRISE/ JOHN LOVE
Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical High School teacher Ken Pearson was given an Audubon Society Conservation Teacher of the Year award for his work with students. Here, he stands along Whitman River, where he brings his students to teach them about the ecosystem's complexities.

muck to find tiny critters for the classroom one day and realized his students were missing out on all the fun.

"When you look through the leaves at the edge of a pond, you see nothing but muck, but that's where all the insect larvae grows," said Pearson.

The small, vulnerable animals are critical to local animals, and he has students put on wading boots and drag nets through the muck to find critters to put in classroom aquariums for study.

There are more than a half-dozen field trips students take during the class, several of which are in the wilderness around Monty Tech and which fit into his aquatic ecology class's 80-minute period.

Pearson, who has been teaching for 18 years, the last eight at Monty Tech, was named the High School Conservation Teacher of the Year last month by Mass Audubon and the New England Farm and Garden Association. He has worked with Mass Audubon to help develop the class, and attributes winning the honor to the "outdoor classroom" sessions of his project-orientated course.

Four years ago, the school moved biology from a sophomore class to a freshman class, and Pearson said that allowed the creation of several elective science courses for seniors.

"It was a great opportunity to create something new and explore some of the local environment," he said.

His classroom has several shark models suspended from the ceiling and a clear umbrella trimmed with strips of bubble wrap that resembles a jellyfish.

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The class also features a shark week.

In 2010, he got permission from the Newark America paper company to access the company's trail loop and pond across the street. He also got permission from the town of Westminster to bring students along the Crocker Pond Recreation Area trails, where students walk along the Whitman River as the current gets slower and slower down the trail, creating different habitat options.

Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical High School teacher Ken Pearson was given an Audubon Society award for his work with the students, which includes teaching them about the ecosystem around the Whitman River. (SENTINEL & ENTERPRISE / JOHN LOVE)

Pearson said besides the larvae and dragonflies his students are looking to catch, they have seen beavers, minks, ducks, brook trout and turtles, along with signs of moose and deer. A school bus drops them off at one end, and students walk back toward the school and can make it back before the bell rings for the next class.

"We've got it down to a science," he said.

Monty Tech students and teachers have also contributed to the area using their vocational skills, including GPS mapping of the new trail system, new wooden trail signs from the cabinetmaking shop and the creation of a seasonal dock for the pond.

Pearson also takes his students on longer field trips to places like the Quabbin Reservoir and watershed, the New England Aquarium, McLaughlin Fish Hatchery, and the water and wastewater treatment plants in Fitchburg.

He said the class depends on some environmental grants and school funding but also employs fundraisers from Panera Bread and Buffalo Wild Wings. He is seeking more grants and is close to requiring no funding from the school district.

Next year, Pearson said the class will expand from a single semester to a year-round course and will encompass subjects like climate change and the Common Core and National Science Standards.

"Mr. Pearson has been named a Conservation Teacher of the Year because he understands the importance of a healthy environment, and he wants his students to share that understanding," said Gloria Villegas-Cardoza, Mass Audubon director of education and diversity. The group also names an elementary- and middle-school Conservation Teacher of the Year.

"Helping young people connect with nature will enhance their quality of life," she added.

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